International Day of Support for Victims of Torture

"He entered my cell at night, woke me up, made me sit up on my bed and began questioning me. When he failed to achieve any results and his attempts to persuade me proved to be futile, he told one of the prisoners to boil some water and began pouring it on me. My arm was in a sling, broken from previous beatings. The water was poured on my bare flesh. The pain was terrible. I began to scream, but even that required energy. I felt very weak. In short, I could hardly tolerate the torture with boiling water."

"When he did not achieve anything by scalding me, he got mad at his assistant, accusing him of not having heated the water properly and asked him if he had actually boiled the water. I laughed to myself as it would have been impossible for the water to have been hotter than it was; that he thought it was because of the water not being hot enough that he had not had any results. In fact, that boiling water had almost killed me, it was very hard to endure it. You are always on the verge in such a case. And the verge keeps shifting further and further, thank God, but you are on the verge of your endurance, feeling that you can not stand it any longer."

This brief excerpt of a torture survivor's story, taken from the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, just scratches the surface of the terrible physical harm man can inflict on others. There are thousands, if not millions, of stories just like this, of people who may or may not have something to hide being beaten and abused, tortured, either for that information or whatever other reason the torturer decides. While this tale comes from the early 1990's, it would be ignorant to assume these kinds of acts don't continue all over the world today. All to often though, the horror of these acts focuses our attention on the wrong person as we become consumed with catching and punishing the torturer while forgetting the pain and terror of the victim.

That is why this Saturday is so important. Designated the first International Day of Support for Victims of Torture by the United Nations, June 26th serves to remind us that for every conflict, every horror, there are the human victims to remember.

For more information on the day, visit http://www.un.org/events/torture/bkg.htm.

"This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable. It is long overdue that a day be dedicated to remembering and supporting the many victims and survivors of torture around the world."

Secretary-General Kofi Annan